the mother of hadiya pendleton, the 15-year-old honor student who was shot on the streets of chicago just days after performing at the president's inauguration, made this television ad. take a listen. >> a piece of my heart is gone. congress is debating how to fix our gun laws. they can start with background checks for all gun sales. tell congress to support common sense reforms so no more innocent children are killed. and no parent has to go through this heartbreak. >> this ad comes in the middle of president obama's push for tougher gun control legislation. abc's reena ninan is in washington this morning. reena, does the white house get a sense they're gaining traction on this issue, despite all of the opposition in congress? >> reporter: all the issues are pushing of all of them. they believe universal background checks might be the most likely to get pushed through in congress. there's still very much a tough, uphill battle. but what is helping the white house, unfortunately, are these sad, sad cases of these shootings. sandy hook. yesterday, we saw the president actually break d